Strawberries...

I've not had a huge success with strawberries, or any other type of fruit for that matter, over the years. I find that the holey terracotta so-called strawberry pots are difficult to keep watered as the water just floods out of the holes and once my lovingly bought plants start to look a bit crunchy, I soon lose interest and give up. Then I've been disappointed to find that when I finally go to pick my measly couple of strawberries, they've already been nabbed by the squirrels in the garden! Actually, looking back to last summer, I think it may have been a very bad dog that enjoyed the spoils of my harvest.


This year, having gained more space by getting my allotment (which is proving to be very hard work on my own...but that's another story), I decided to make a little strawberry bed in my raised beds in the garden.




I only planted 8 plants, but they have already made lots of extra little ones on the runners that they produce, which I will attempt to peg down and make some more individual plantlets. I wouldn't say I've had a bumper crop - certainly not enough to consider making some jam. But I have had a couple of bowls of sun-warmed fruits, picked and eaten with minutes. With lashings of double cream. No photo, I'm afraid - too greedy!

But, horror of horrors, something has discovered them again and it's not of the canine variety. I know that because dogs and chickens are kept out of my vegetable patch at the moment by the installation of some stock fence. It could be squirrels or it could be pigeons, I'm not sure. But the long and short of it is that I have now netted my little strawberry bed and now sit back and wait for another bowl-full to ripen.